. >>> the president is spending christmas holiday with his family in hawaii. cnn's brianna keeler is there. brianna there is no official word when he is coming back to the mainland, as that fiscal cliff deadline gets closer what do you think will happen out there as the week rolls on? >> reporter: well, miquel, it's hard to believe that president obama would not at some point come back to washington it is not officially on his calendar at this point but he has obviously come out here for christmas break while congress is away from washington as well and it is, of course, a little bit of a working vacation for him, as the white house tries to work something out with senate democrats, some sort of package to avoid these tax hikes for middle class americans here tend of the year. that's something, of course that will require some buy-in from senate republicans to pass. and it seems that unlikely that senate minority leader mitch mcconnell would want to negotiating? that he doesn't feel will be able to also pass the house, which would require the support of some h